In my arms
by Slytherin Head
Summary: Growing up life was hard...but it helped me become the man I am today...
1. Chapter 1

_A/N- This will be AU story. This was written for the "Tell me a story" challenge at Hogwarts Online. This first chapter is the one entered in the challenge, the rest of the chapters that will be posted are not part of the collaboration. But please, after you read this go check out the other stories written for the challenge._

_A big thanks to my beta debjunk for working her magic. Hope you enjoy this guys!_

Disclaimer- I don't own this. J. K. Rowling is the owner of Harry Potter and all it's other characters. I'm merely borrowing them for now. I make no money out of this.

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Growing up, I never had much. My father, for the first four years of my life, was a great man. He loved his wife and was there for every important event of my infancy. But later he was laid off from the shipping company, and my family barely made enough to support three people. The small job my father had gotten at the town mill was soon gone, and my father turned to the bottle and lost himself in it. After that he would work the odd job here and there, it didn't take long before no one would hire him. If he would just have listened to mum and stopped drinking, we could have made a decent living.

It didn't take long before he was spending more time at the bar than at home. If he did come home, it was because he either ran out of the little money we had or the bartender was sick and tired of seeing him all the time.

With my father out of the job and drinking all the time, my mum had to take up two jobs. One at the nearby hospital working as a cafeteria lady and another at the Leaky Cauldron. Even then it was still hard for my mum to choose what was more important; food or house bills.

When I was finally seven, I started to help my mum with the bills, much to her frustration. I figured if the dunderhead I had to call my father wasn't going to take responsibility and take care of his family and work, then I would. So, during the weekends until spring, I would shovel peoples driveways. For the most part, people would always pay me, and if they thought I did a really good job, they would give me some extra coins. Sometimes there were people who would try to cheat me out by saying that they had already paid me when they hadn't.

Since mum was always at work and Tobias was at the bar, I had no one to go to when people refused to pay me, even though they had said they would. It didn't matter though, because it taught me to stand up for myself. Soon those people saw that I wasn't some stupid kid and started paying me. By the end of the month, I had 10 pounds to my name and gave them to my mum for the bills. It wasn't much, but at least she wouldn't have to decide on whether or not it was important to pay the bills first with a little more cash now. February brought even more snow to which I was thankful, because it meant I would get paid more. Sure enough, at the end of the month, I got almost double of what I had gotten my first month. I took ten pounds for myself and hid them. They would become the ticket out of Spinner's End and away from Tobias.

I was slowly earning money and helping mum out. When spring arrived I mowed people's lawns and helped them in the gardens. I kept my savings secret, making sure that Tobias didn't know I was earning money or where I kept it. I know mum kept a saving jar around the house, too, but we had both agreed that it would be safer not to know where each of us kept our savings. One day, I found mum sitting on the kitchen floor crying. I rushed to her side, and to my immense horror I saw her left eye was swollen, and she had a split lip. She also had bruises slowly forming on her arms, and her legs had small cuts on them. Looking at the floor I saw her savings jar broken. The money was scattered all over, but I could tell quiet a lot was missing, and if the odor of alcohol was any hint, I knew who was responsible for it. Tobias.

"Mum?" She opened her eyes and looked at me. The pain I saw in them broke my heart. I didn't know what to say or do, so I just held her while she cried. We both sat in the kitchen for a good hour or so before I got up and left to get the medicine kit. While I cleaned up all of her cuts and put some healing salve on her eye, I made her tell me what had happened. I could guess for myself, but I wanted to hear it from her.

She told me that Tobias had started to gamble, and he had lost heavily in his first game. The people he had lost to where part of a small gang that was rapidly gaining power in the city. Scared that they would kill him if he didn't pay up right away, he rushed back home and demand that my mum gave him all the money we had. When she refused he struck her and began ransacking the house until he found her saving jar. She tried to take it away from him, and he smacked her again and ended up dropping the jar. That's how she had gotten all the cuts, when he smacked her she had fallen on top of the broken pieces. He didn't bother checking on her and just grabbed whatever money he could.

As I helped my mum clean the kitchen and the rest of the house, I couldn't help but wish with all my heart that he hadn't taken enough to pay up. They'll beat him up and maybe it'll be enough for him to stop drinking and go back to the man he used to be. But I highly doubt that will ever happen.

_Please review! Thanks!_


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer- I don't own any of this. J. K. Rowling is the proud owner of Harry Potter

_A/N- Just another reminder that this story will be canon. Thanks to my beta debjunk for her awesome work. Please leave a review afterwards. Thank you!_

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Chapter 2

Tobias didn't return home that night or the next day. Two weeks later a letter arrived telling us that the bank had repossessed our small home. We packed up our belongings, leaving nothing behind. All of Tobias' things were also packed up and given to charity.

With the help of one of the neighbors, we moved what little belongings we had. I remember riding in the front seat of the truck with my mum looking out the window. As we drove past Spinner's End and entered Garrison street, I noticed a family moving into one of the newer houses. It was a couple with two girls one tall and skinny; with blond hair and a girl who looked to be around my age. I don't think I had ever seen someone with hair as red as hers.

Once we arrived in London, Tom, the landlord was waiting for us near the Inn. Of course to our Muggle neighbor the Inn looked like an old bookshop. We thanked the man for helping us move and then said our goodbyes.

Mum quit her job at the hospital, and we got a small flat in the city. Since we were closer now to the Leaky Cauldron, mum worked full time there. I somehow ended up with a part-time job as a delivery boy at a nearby pastry shop. I only worked during the weekends and vacations, but I earned enough to help mum out with some bills.

When I turned nine, my mum got a job as a brewer for St. Mungo's leaving her old job at the Cauldron. Without having to work for Tom, she had more time to spend at home with me. She started to teach me how to brew and by the time it was summer I was able to brew potions of a fifth-year-level.

It was then that my mum began to worry about Hogwarts. She told me that she had already paid my tuition for the first four years but the materials would be expensive.

We decided that I would be able to use most of her old school books. I had no problem wearing second-hand robes. The most expensive thing I would need was my wand. We went to Ollivander's and asked the old man an estimate on what a new wand would cost. After he told us the price I did the math in my head converting pounds to galleons. With all of my savings I had half of what I would need to buy a wand.

When we left my mum kept asking me if I was sure I wanted to buy my wand with my own savings. She kept telling me that she could buy it for me so that I wouldn't have to waste my money and that it was her responsibility to take care of me. I just smiled and kept silent as we went about making our way back to our small flat. I let mum think she had won and was going to buy the wand. I knew it was going to be a constant argument from now on.

Before I knew it, school had started again, and I was busy making sure that my grades were the best. I wanted to prove to the boys who made fun of me that I wasn't an idiot like them. None of the other kids in my class had a job like I did at the pastry. I managed to convince both mum and my boss that I was responsible enough to work during the weekends, but only after I showed both of them that I had completed my homework.

Mum expected a clean room, clean plate and good grades. What she never expected was for me to receive a promotion before she did.


End file.
